Lordstown Motors can’t catch a break.
The electric truck startup is struggling to stay open after losing much of its funding last month. The company warned investors in May how it might have to cease operations soon if it can’t reach a new funding agreement with electronics giant and major Lordstown backer Foxconn.
Now, its first product has received frustrating news from the EPA. In reports from laboratory testing, the Lordstown Endurance pickup was rated for 174 miles of range between charges.
That comes despite carrying one of the market’s largest batteries- a mammoth 109-kWh cell. By comparison, the lowest-range version of Ford’s F-150 Lightning electric truck gets 240 miles from a 98-kWh battery.
Chevrolet’s upcoming 2024 Silverado EV, the company says, can travel 450 miles between charging sessions — more than 2.5 times the Endurance’s figure.
We should caution here that the EPA reports have been wrong before. The agency rates the base-model Porsche Taycan for as little as 206 miles, but Taycan owners and journalists routinely report much higher range figures. Endurance owners may get more real-world range than laboratory dynamometer tests suggest.
The Endurance showed early promise, listed as a finalist for the 2023 North American Truck of the Year award (which ultimately went to the Lightning).
But the company is fighting for its life, recently approving a reverse stock split in an attempt to keep its stock price from falling so low that an automatic trigger delisted it from the NASDAQ stock market. Negative news won’t help that effort.
Lordstown is one of a cluster of electric vehicle startups in danger of closing due to funding struggles.
